Judy Gross, MEd, is a professional-level Kripalu Yoga Instructor and long-time practitioner of yoga and meditation. Her experience with yoga began in the locked acute psychiatric ward of a Philadelphia, PA area hospital, where she interned as a college student. As the fledgling within the Recreation Department, Judy was responsible for gathering up patients for the daily morning yoga class taught by her boss, a woman in her late 60s.
During the very first class, Judy witnessed the power of yoga to soothe difficult emotional states. “When the psychotic patients sat up after the guided relaxation, I could clearly see the impact one hour of yoga had made—their faces were serene.”
Convinced there was something to this ancient practice, Judy began teaching yoga at the hospital and pursuing her own yoga studies. Eventually she left the hospital and landed in Human Resources at the headquarters of a burgeoning national health care company. Here again she experienced the capacity of simple breathing and yoga postures to offset body/mind reactions to a high stress corporate environment.
Bitten by the marriage bug, Judy relocated to New Hampshire and completed the Kripalu 200- and 500- hour professional yoga teacher training in western Massachusetts while teaching at local studios and hospitals.
She had delayed taking the requisite “teaching meditation techniques” as long as possible and much to her surprise, found that she loved the program and settled right into the practice of meditation. “Yoga is a way of moving into stillness… to listen inwardly for guidance…” (Eric Schiffmann) is a driving force behind her practice and teaching.
A formal training/practicum in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts Medical School marked a pivotal turning point in Judy’s relationship with herself. As a former queen of self-flagellation, Judy’s inner critic was given a new job description. Liberated from the responsibility of creating doubt and ongoing critique, it now resides as a small voice wielding a fraction of its former power.
Judy believes that “Mindfulness, the practice of seeing things as they really are, leads to a more confident, less reactive way of relating to the unavoidable difficulties in life.” Inspired by the freedom and clarity that mindfulness cultivates, she leads 1- and 2-day silent retreats and teaches mindfulness-based yoga/meditation classes and stress reduction workshops in southern NH.